Lou Pickney's Online Commentary

Alignment

Wednesday
October 22, 2014

October is my favorite month of the year. The oppressive heat of summer is gone, but the brutal cold of winter is not yet here. Leaves on the trees are changing colors, sometimes in spectacularly impressive visual fashion. Major League Baseball's postseason meets the start of the NHL and NBA seasons right in the heart of college and NFL football season.

Of course, geographic location plays a role. In Tampa the winter was great, in that 60-70 degree zone for the most part. October-March is a great time to be there. I really miss that city.

Around the corner will be my first winter in Columbus, coming off what from all indications was a rough one last year. Maybe the law of averages will work in my favor. We'll see.

As I've chronicled on here many times, I've been plagued by migraine headaches for the past 14+ years. Desperation finally led me going to visit a chiropractor, which made an immediate difference. But I've been on a track that might make the torment of migraines history for me thanks to the new chiropractor I started going to when I moved here.

Thanks to the positive reviews I read on Yelp, I paid a visit to Tri-Village Chiropractic in June. To be clear, I've had great chiropractic treatment in the past, but Dr. Thomas Bea really went above and beyond to figure out the cause of my migraines.

The answer? Well, with migraines there never is a simple one, but in my case x-rays revealed that my neck was considerably out of alignment, with a 10° angle to the right that shouldn't be there. He began me on a treatment of neck exercises, something I am able to do easily just about anywhere, and has been scaling back my visits as I've shown progress. A follow-up x-ray showed that the exercises had reduced angle reduced to 5°, which to me was remarkable.

Things aren't perfect yet, as I had a series of several that hit within the course of two weeks last month. But that was the first time in a long time they had hit like that and they've gone away now, which is tremendous.

I can't express strongly enough just how problematic migraines are psychologically. The fear that one might sneak up on you at an inopportune time is horrible, as is the very real concern that you might wake up in agonizing pain from a migraine that is in full effect. Imitrex, the one rescue medication that actually works for me, takes an hour to kick in, particularly if it's not taken until the migraine is raging.

In short, Dr. Bea has made a tremendously positive impact on my life with his treatment, and I give my strongest possible recommendation to him and his staff. If you need chiropractic help and live or work near the Grandview Heights area of Columbus, schedule an appointment there. You won't regret it.

Game 2 of the World Series is tonight, and I'm hoping that the Kansas City Royals can get the win. With the San Francisco Giants up 1-0, another road victory tonight would give the NL representative huge momentum going home for the middle three games of the series. I don't dislike the Giants, but it would be my strong preference to see the long-suffering fans in Kansas City have something big to finally be able to celebrate.